Auction of former professor's collection of art supports scholarship fund

Paintings, drawings, and other objects from the collection of former English professor Charles Ryskamp were sold at Sotheby’s in January, raising more than $1.6 million, primarily for undergraduate financial aid at Princeton. Ryskamp, who died in March 2010, spent the second half of his career as director of the Frick Collection and the Morgan Library and Museum in New York, and he was a “collector who liked to be amused,” according to The New York Times. Notable items in the auction included a watercolor of two “twin-fingered lemons,” attributed to the 17th-century Italian painter Giovanna Garzoni, and “Distant Lightning. Twilight,” a landscape drawn by 19th-century British artist and amateur scientist Cornelius Varley. Ryskamp’s gift will establish the Charles Ryskamp Scholarship Fund, which will support undergraduates, with a preference for students in the departments of English and art and archaeology.